The Next 20 Years of Your Life: A Personal Guide into the Year 2017

By Richard Worzel

According to THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS OF YOUR LIFE, our future is moving into a society of more diversity and more extremes, but we can influence our own lives. The book shows how we each can apply... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773730133
• ISBN13: 9780773730137
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Stoddart Pub
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

The Future

The question is asked "would you rather live 100 years in the past, or 100 years in the furture," one might be surprised at the answer. The book will make the reader aware of the changes we all will encounter in the next 20 years. In hopes that by bringing changes to light it will make the reader think about them and prepare themselves. The author has written two other books on the future, but this book is " more personal and more speculative." The author takes the reader from the analog era into the ditigital era and gives the advantages that this brings to the new world of communications. The author presents the facts that lead to the big changes effecting the future employment market and the competition for those jobs that demand higher skills. Skills much higher than the workers have ever been trained for. Money management will also be a very crucial issue in the future because the manner in which one manages their money will effect their retirement. He discusses the facts that people go through different financial cycles as one passes through the stages in life and gives an example that is very realistic. Health care and governmental involvement is also discussed. The author developed an econometric model, based on Canadian demographics, which indicated that by the year 2017 the health care program in Canada will be costing about 45% of the governments budget. The effects of these high costs will force the government to place more restrictions on the health care professionals as to where they can practise. The author predicts changes to our society through each of the chapters and then ties them all together in the concluding chapters. I recommend this book to anyone who professes to be a futurist. The world that the author describes for the future is "substantially different from the world around you today."

An excellent companion to his previous 'Facing the Future'

This book avoids all the technical jargon and Worzel doesn't get too caught up in his own predictions, often stating that his 'predictions' are only possilbe outcomes due to the number of variables. But to anyone in not involved in the Technology sector, his short stories clearly show how much technology can affect us and how much it already is (without many of us being aware). If you enjoyed this book as much as I did, you will also be interested in an earlier work 'Facing the Future'.

Only 18 yrs for his predictions, some are already occuring

Written from a Canadian view point, this book has a lot to say for all North Americans. The changes are already occuring. The growth in the internet makes his words about the glut of information omonous, "If used wisely, this will be a wealth that our ancestors could not have dreamed of. If used poorly or with evil intent ... this will unleash destructive powers we can barely imagine ...(p14)." His predictions about education, job security or the lack of it, and increasing opportunities provide a picture of technology booming for some and leaving others, particularly the over-45 age group, behind in the dust. Whether you like his projections or not, he makes you think and reconsider. Are you flexible enough to tolerate the rapid change he predicts in the technology revolution?

A Must-Read for Canadian Planners

Worzel offers a unique set of projections, wishes and suggestions as to what will, might or should happen ... along with a strong Canadian viewpoint. You may or may not agree with him on each point but YOU WILL START THINKING ... and that's what he really wants you to do.He has a very fluid style that makes for pleasant reading ... and it's not "work". I especially enjoyed the mini-scenarios.I highly recommend this book.

absolutely amazing

I've had the pleasure of seeing Mr Worzel live and he writes as well as he speaks. What he says is not always amazing but how he it puts it together will absolutely blow you away. You won't look at your world or your future the same way